Paul Goldsmith Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The state-owned enterprises minister Paul Goldsmith says the government has been clear it would not sell state-owned enterprises without campaigning on that.
However, he did not rule out campaigning on such a move in future.
"We've always been clear that if we were going to sell them, we would take that to an election as a commitment, and so we'll do that," he said.
He said Cabinet had not yet made decisions on what might replace the Interislander ferries.
An independent report on the options for doing so was delivered last month, but has not yet been released.
"These are big decisions to make, we're just going through the options at the moment, and when we've got something to announce, we'll announce it."
On Monday, KiwiRail released a summary of a report on the breakdown-plagued ferries by international maritime assessors Den Norske Veritas (DNV).
Multiple systems on the three ferries were close to obsolescent, including one ship's bridge radar, but they were "operationally safe", just difficult to maintain, KiwiRail said.
Continuing to maintain the ships into the future was estimated to require about an extra $7m a year.
The DNV assessors concluded it was possible to keep the three ships running until at least 2029.